American Indians Work To Eliminate Indian Mascots (Aug. 10, 1998)

WNCCEIB has been working with the Buncombe County Native
American Intertribal Association

for the past year in a joint effort to get the Buncombe County
School Board to eliminate American Indian mascots. What follows is the
news release for the Intertribal Association's New Confererence on August
10, 1998.

Also included is the

Community Resolution For Respect For American
Indian Culture

that the Intertribal Association is encouraging interested
parties to sign and adopt.

Please download the resolution and get as many
organizations and individuals to sign as possible. Thank you.

Text of News Release

Under a banner reading,
"American Indians are a living people, NOT mascots",
Don Merzlak said he doesn't want his two little girls to grow up damaged
psychologically by Indian mascots. Merzlak, a resident of the Erwin
School District in western North Carolina's mountainous Buncombe County,
is Elder for The Buncombe County Native American Intertribal Association.

At a news conference
held outside the gates of the Buncombe County School Board offices on Monday
August 10, the first day of school, Merzlak held up a "Resolution of Respect
for American Indian Culture" that he said he hopes businesses, churches,
civic organizations, government bodies, and individuals will sign to deliver
to the Buncombe School Board later in the fall.

Merzlak's wife, Pat,
called on the School Board to start the school year off right by living
up to its Non-Discrimination Policy and eliminating the Indian mascots
at Clyde A. Erwin High School outside Asheville, the school district where
the Merzlaks have lived since 1964.

"The board's own policy
mandates a learning environment that respects cultural differences and
eliminates all vestiges of discrimination. But the School Board instructed
its staff in closed session not to apply that policy to the mascot issue,"
she said.

The Intertribal Association
held the news conference after a year of controversy in which the School
Board put the issue to a vote by students at Erwin. Forty one per
cent of the students voted to keep the mascots. Thirty three per
cent voted for change and the remainder either voted "not concerned" or
refused to vote.

According to Don Merzlak,
the Intertribal Association opposed the vote, "You don't vote on
racism and sexual harassment. The elected adults on the School Board
should have done the right thing from the beginning but they hid behind
the vote idea despite our opposition to it. Even with the vote, they
didn't get half the students to support keeping the mascots. Yet
they do nothing."

Bruce Two Eagles, another
council member in the Intertribal Association, pointed to overwhelming
support from the Erwin faculty for a change along with supportive letters
from N.C. Governor Jim Hunt and from Gregory Richardson, Director of the
N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs. "We have tried to work with the
Board for a year, meeting with their representatives almost monthly.
We want to thank those school officials and students who have tried to
make a difference especially the Erwin faculty and the many impressive,
articulate students at the school. It is unfortunate that the
Board's intransigence is allowing his issue to obscure the many good things
happening at Erwin," said Two Eagles.

"Across the country,
schools and universities are recognizing that American Indians are being
hurt by mascot stereotypes just as African-Americans were hurt by "little
black Sambo" images. The time for change is long overdue. Over
115 colleges and universities including UT(Chattanooga), Stanford, Marquette,
and Miami of Ohio have eliminated Indian mascots, as have the Dallas and
Los Angeles public schools," said Two Eagles.

"School Board Chair
Wendell Begley and Superintendent Bowers have told us repeatedly they want
to see a change, but they don't have the votes on the Board.
We ask today that Board members Mike Anders, Bruce Goforth, Linda Summy,
and Terry Roberson rethink their positions and do the right thing for Buncombe
County American Indians and indeed for their own children," continued Two
Eagles.

Erwin High School calls
its male athletes "warriors" and its female athletes "squaws." There
is a 25 foot tall Indian statue outside the school's entrances and "Home
of the Warriors and Squaws" written in large letters across the ousted
wall of the gymnasium.

Two-Eagles said that
use of the term "squaw" is particularly offensive because it refers to
a woman's genital area and connotes among Indians someone who is worse
that a prostitute. He said that the state of Minnesota and others
have taken steps to remove 'squaw' from geographic name places. "it
is not about being 'politically correct', it is about showing basic human
decency and respect for one's fellow citizens," he said.

Don Merzlak said that
the news conference is the beginning of a three month campaign to shine
a public spotlight on the School Board's inattention to its own policy.
In addition to asking area organizations to support the Resolution, Merzlak
said that the documentary video, "In Whose Honor" about the national
mascot situation will be made available to churches and organizations interested
in the subject.

Merzlak said the Intertribal
Association hopes the School Board will take constructive action soon,
but if not, they plan to bring the resolutions to the School Board at its
November regular meeting.

Western North Carolina Citizens For An End To Institutional
Bigotry(WNCCEIB)

WNCCEIB is a non-profit, tax-exempt project of the
Western Carolina Coalition For Social Concerns. WNCCEIB expresses its appreciation
to the Greensboro Justice Fund, the Robert J. and Eunice J. Wagner Foundation,
and other generous donors for their support.